Re: Customer balks at Ada -- any hope?

[Gary Scott <Gary.L.Scott@lmtas.lmco.com>]

Hi,
I hope that you will post/summarize your conclusions here in some detail
(as someone with an interest in discouraging the stampede towards C++ in
my company, I would like to distribute them more widely, if possible).

Thanks

mjsilva@my-deja.com wrote:
> 
> In article <397CCF84.D54A1BC2@ix.netcom.com>,
>   Richard Riehle <laoXhai@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > mjsilva@my-deja.com wrote:
> >
> > > We're bidding on a custom industrial controller, and I've proposed
> to
> > > write the firmware in Ada.  The powers-that-be here are satisfied
> with
> > > that, but the customer is afraid nobody will be around to maintain
> it.
> > > They're happier with C or C++, alas.  Anybody have any good answers
> to
> > > their concern?
> > >
> >
> > This situation is so common that we should have some kind of canned
> > response.   However,
> > there are a lot of people out there who will never be persuaded about
> the
> > virtues of Ada over
> > C and C++ regardless of what facts are presented.    A bunch of
> misinformed
> > software developers
> > at a mid-west USAF base comes to mind.
> >
> > Someone once said, "He convinced against his will is of the same
> opinion
> > still."   Your customer
> > will continue to be wary of Ada simply because of the widespread
> mythology
> > about it.
> >
> > A few things can be said that might make sense.   An Ada program,
> > well-written will probably be
> > more readable ten years from now than any program in C or C++ by a
> > programmer who has never
> > seen any of the above mentioned languages.   The Ada compiler you
> used for
> > the project will
> > still be around somewhere.   If someone understands the nature of
> firmware,
> > that same someone
> > will have no difficulty understanding your Ada code unless you make
> it so
> > cryptic that it reads like
> > C or C++ just to be mischievous.
> >
> > That being said, I doubt you will have any success persuading the
> customer
> > that Ada is a better
> > choice.  Such people make up their minds, like the previously
> mentioned
> > software developers, and
> > simply close their minds to anything different from what they have
> already
> > decided.  You could write
> > the code in both languages and let them see the difference.  Doubt
> that
> > will help, but it might be worth
> > a try.
> 
> I don't sense they have an active animus towards Ada, but only a
> concern about maintenance.  I've prepared a response that tries to
> point out the technical benefits of Ada and the relative unsuitability
> of C/C++ for high reliability software (I found quite a few quotes from
> DoD and NASA documents that help).  I've also tried to emphasize that a
> decent embedded programmer should pick up maintenance Ada quickly and
> that, OTOH, most of the vast pool of C/C++ programmers are not
> necessarily qualified to do embedded programming.
> 
> Anyway, I'll give it my best shot.  The more I step back from C/C++ the
> more unsuitable it seems to me for creating reliable software (and the
> more important reliability becomes in my priorities).
> 
> Mike
> 
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.